Interactive program guide with graphic program listings

ABSTRACT

Electronic program guides in which program listings may be graphically presented and in which sponsors and celebrities of those programs may be identified are provided. The electronic programs guides may be passive television program guides, interactive television program guides, and/or on-line television program guides. Television show text information, logos and/or trademarks, celebrity images, affiliation indicators, and advertisements may be present in the program listings to enhance the electronic program guides.

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional application No.60/174,443, filed Jan. 4, 2000, which is hereby incorporated byreference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to electronic program guides, and moreparticularly, to promotional techniques for program guides.

Electronic program guides are used to provide program listingsinformation to television viewers. Program listings information mayinclude program titles, scheduled broadcast times and channels, programdescriptions, etc.

One form of electronic program guide is the passive television programguide. Passive television program guides, such as the TV Guide Channel,are typically provided by cable system head-ends or other televisiondistribution facilities on a dedicated television channel. Passiveprogram guides may provide program listings in the form of anautomatically scrolling or paged list. Viewers may access the listingsof the passive program guide by tuning to the appropriate dedicatedtelevision channel with a standard television or set-top box.

Another form of electronic program guide is the interactive televisionprogram guide. Interactive television program guides, such as TV GuideInteractive and Gemstar Guide Plus, are typically implemented on set-topboxes or other user television equipment with suitable processingcircuitry. Users typically interact with such interactive televisionprogram guides using a remote control. Features that are often offeredby interactive television program guides include the capability to setfavorite channels or programs, the capability to set reminders forprograms of interest, and the ability to establish parental controls.

Yet another form of electronic program guide is the on-line televisionprogram guide. On-line television program guides, such as TV GuideOnline, allow users to access program listings information over theInternet using a web browser or similar interface. When using theseguides, users frequently may click on program titles within the guidesto view additional information such as a detailed program description.

All of these variations of electronic program guides provide programlistings information to their viewers or users in the form of text. Thiscan be seen in passive products such as the TV Guide Channel orAmericast's passive program guide, both of which feature a text-basedscrolling grid of listings. Text-based listings are also seen inInternet guides such as the GIST on-line program guide and the Click TVon-line program guide. Text-based listings are also seen in interactiveprogram guides such as Starsight and Americast interactive programguides.

Nevertheless, there is a need for a more aesthetically pleasing andeye-catching methods for presenting electronic program guides.Preferably these methods would incorporate program listings that areeasy to identify and that indicate relationships between sponsors andcelebrities of those programs.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an electronicprogram guide that presents program listings as graphical images thatcan meet these needs.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This and other objects of the invention are accomplished in accordancewith the principles of the present invention by providing electronicprogram guides in which program listings may be graphically presentedand in which sponsors and celebrities of those programs may beidentified. The electronic programs guide may be passive televisionprogram guides, interactive television program guides, and/or on-linetelevision program guides. Television show text information, informationicons, graphic logos and/or trademarks, celebrity images, affiliationindicators, and advertisements may be present in the program listings toenhance the electronic program guides.

Further features of the invention, its nature and various advantageswill be more apparent from the accompanying drawings and the followingdetailed description of the preferred embodiments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of program guide provider equipment, acommunication link, and program guide display equipment that may be usedin accordance with some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an illustration of an electronic program guide display screenthat may be presented in accordance with some embodiments of the presentinvention.

FIG. 3 is an illustration of an electronic program guide display screenshowing text information and information icons that may be presented inaccordance with some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an illustration of an electronic program guide display screenshowing an information tray that may be presented in accordance withsome embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an illustration of an electronic program guide display screenshowing program information with colored backgrounds that may bepresented in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an illustration of an electronic program guide display screenshowing program logos and affiliation indicators that may be presentedin accordance with some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an illustration of an electronic program guide display screenshowing celebrity images that may be presented in accordance with someembodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an illustration of another electronic program guide displayscreen showing celebrity images that may be presented in accordance withsome embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is an illustration of an electronic program guide display screenshowing affiliation indicators and an advertisement button that may bepresented in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is an illustration of an electronic program guide display screenshowing promotion buttons that may be presented in accordance with someembodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is an illustration of an electronic program guide display screenshowing a promotion button and an advertising button that may bepresented in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is an illustration of an electronic program guide display screenshowing a promotion button that may be presented in accordance with someembodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Turning first to FIG. 1, a system 100 for presenting an electronicprogram guide is illustrated. System 100 may be used to implement anyform of electronic program guide, including a passive television programguide, an interactive television program guide, and an on-linetelevision program guide. As shown, system 100 may include program guideprovider equipment 120, a communication link 130, and program guidedisplay equipment 140.

When implemented as a passive television program guide, system 100 maybe implemented with equipment 120 being a computer and video generatorat a cable head-end, link 130 being a one-way cable televisiondistribution system, and equipment 140 being a television. Program guidedata then may be formatted by the computer, converted to a video signalby the video generator, transmitted through the cable televisiondistribution system, and then received by and displayed on thetelevision.

When implemented as an interactive television program guide, system 100may be implemented with equipment 120 being a server at a cable head-endor other location, link 130 being a one-way or two-way cable televisiondistribution system, and equipment 140 being an advanced set-top box anda television. Program guide data may the be transmitted from the serverthrough the cable television distribution system, received by theset-top box, displayed on the television; and interacted with by a userusing a remote control of the set-top box.

When implemented as an on-line television program guide, system 100 maybe implemented with equipment 120 being a server, link 130 being acomputer network that may include the Internet, and equipment 140 beinga computer that is capable of communicating with the server in equipment120. Program guide data may then be formed by the server into a webpage, transmitted by the server through the computer network to thecomputer, displayed on a computer monitor connected to the computer tothe user, and interacted with by the user using a mouse and/or keyboardattached to the computer.

Obviously, many variations of suitable equipment may be used to providean electronic program guide in accordance with the present inventionwithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Forexample, the present invention may be implemented in a satellitetelevision system.

Turning to FIG. 2, one embodiment of an electronic program guide display200 in accordance with the present invention is illustrated. As shown,program guide display 200 may include a top half 202 and a bottom half203. Top half 202 may include promotional videos, advertisements,graphics, text, icons, and/or any other suitable content. Bottom half203 may include a time bar 204 that indicates the current time and timeslots for television programs, and an information area 206 thatindicates information relating to television programs that are on inthose time slots. The content provided in top half 202 of display 200may or may not correspond to the information relating to televisionprograms that is provided in bottom half 203 of display 200.

As illustrated in FIG. 3, time bar 204 preferably includes a clock 302and time slots 304. Time bar 204 may also include a guide provider logo303 to indicate to the viewer the identity of the provider of the guide.Time slots 304 provide an indication of when programs were playing, areplaying, and/or will be playing. Time slots 304 may be implemented inany suitable delineation of time segments. For example, time slots 304may be implemented in half-hour segments (e.g., one segment may read8:00, the next may read 8:30, and another may read 9:00). The time slotsmay also indicate when the times indicated by the time slots are in thepast.

As shown, information area 206 may include program listings for theelectronic program guide. In some embodiments, the program listing maybe displayed as buttons 306. Buttons 306 may include text informationpertaining to each program, such as the title of the program, adescription of the program, names of actors in the program, etc, andinformational icons that indicate the rating of the program (e.g., PG,G, TV-13, etc.), whether the program is in stereo, whether the programis closed-captioned, whether the program is in Dolby, whether theprogram is broadcast in High-Definition Television (HDTV), etc. Buttons306 may be color coded to indicate what category of show eachrepresents. Each button 306 may be aligned with a channel indicator 308to indicate what channel a corresponding program is on. Each channelindicator 308 may indicate the channel number, call letters, name, logo,and/or any other suitable indicator of the channel indicator. Eachchannel indicator 308 may also be in a similar style to guide providerlogo 303.

Although the program listings are shown herein as being displayed inbuttons 306, program listings may be displayed in any suitable graphicalelement, such as a grid cell.

An information tray 402 may also be included in information area 206 asshown in FIG. 4. Information tray 402 may contain a legend 404 thatindicates the scheme used for color-coding buttons 306, if any. Forexample, legend 404 may indicate that buttons 306 corresponding tosports programs are indicated in green and that buttons 306corresponding to movies are indicated in red. Thus, as shown in FIG. 5,buttons 502 and 504 would be colored green and button 506 would becolored red. Information tray 402 may also display information such asweather and news 406.

Turning to FIG. 6, a graphical approach to displaying programinformation in buttons 306 of information area 206 is shown. Asillustrated, buttons 306 include graphical elements such as logos and/ortrademarks for the programs identified by the buttons that may be usedin addition to or instead of basic text. For example, button 604contains the graphic logo “F.R.I.E.N.D.S” instead of the basic text“Friends”. Similarly, button 606 contains the graphic logo“SportsCenter” (wherein “Center” is in bold letters) instead of thebasic text “SportsCenter” (wherein none of the letters are boldletters). Button 612 contains the graphic logo for “Home Improvement”wherein the words “Home Improvement” are incorporated into a graphicrepresentation of a house rather than simply being presented as ordinarytext. By displaying buttons 306 with graphic logos and/or trademarks ofthe corresponding programs, viewers can more easily identify programsthat are of interest to them. For this reason, program providers may bewilling to pay to have their programs presented as logos and/ortrademarks in the program guide in addition to or instead of basic text.

Like buttons 306 with text content, buttons 306 with graphic content mayhave colored backgrounds to indicate to the viewer what type of programis showing. For example, “F.R.I.E.N.D.S” button 604 may have a yellowbackground to indicate that it corresponds to a situation comedy(sitcom) or drama. “SportsCenter” button 606 may be colored green toindicate that it corresponds to sports related programming.

Buttons 306 may also indicate affiliation of programs and/or the programguide with an affiliated entity by providing graphical elementaffiliation indicators within the buttons. For example, buttons 306 mayinclude one or more affiliation indicators to indicate networkaffiliation (e.g., ABC, NBC, etc.), sports team affiliation (e.g., GreenBay Packers, Denver Broncos, New York Yankees, etc.), corporateaffiliation (e.g., NFL, NASCAR, National Geographic, etc.), eventaffiliation (e.g., Super Bowl, Daytona 500, Kentucky Derby, etc.), guideaffiliation (e.g., TV Guide, etc.), etc. Affiliation indicators mayindicate sponsorship of a program by a sponsor, or may indicate anyother affiliation between an entity and a program.

FIG. 6 shows examples buttons 306 with affiliation indicators. Button608 indicates a network affiliation of the program “News Channel 7” withthe ABC Network, and button 610 indicates a corporate affiliation of theprogram “NFL's Greatest” with the NFL. These are just two possiblevariations of including affiliation indicators in buttons 306. Othervariations could include multiple affiliation indicators in the samebutton.

Button 306 may also include graphical element celebrity images as shownin FIG. 7. As illustrated, buttons 702, 704, and 706 have images ofcelebrities in the buttons. Celebrity images on these buttons helpviewers identify programs because viewers associate celebrity imageswith programs. Button 706, for instance, shows the faces of the castmembers of the show “Party of Five.” As is evident in FIG. 7, the sizesof buttons in the program guides of the present may be any suitable sizeor shape and need not be of uniform size or shape. As is also evident inFIG. 7, especially from button 704, many features of the invention canbe used in the same button. As illustrated, button 704 is a largebutton, and includes a program logo, an affiliation indicator for atelevision network affiliation, an affiliation indicator for a corporateaffiliation (possibly a sponsor), text information, and a celebrityimage.

Other examples of celebrity images within buttons are shown in FIG. 8.As can be seen, in button 802, a program logo, network affiliationindicator, and a celebrity image are all included. Alternatively, asshown in button 804, only a program logo and a celebrity image may beused. As yet another alternative, a program logo may be positionedwithin a celebrity image as shown in button 806.

By providing logos, affiliation indicators, and celebrity images inbuttons, the program guide of the present invention provides increasedreadability. Because less time is spent reading the program listings,viewers can focus more time looking at other parts of the screen. Thisis particularly useful because this provides an incentive for companiesto advertise in the program guide and/or sponsor programs indicated inbuttons 306. In order to provide more space for advertisements, biggerchannel buttons may be implemented in the program guide.

Turning to FIG. 9, a large button 902 is shown. As illustrated, button902 indicates that on the television program “Monday Night Football,”the Denver Broncos are playing the Kansas City Chiefs. To help theviewer quickly identify this football game, affiliation indicators 904,906, and 908 are included in button 902. Indicator 904 indicates thatthis program is affiliated with the National Football League, andindicators 906 and 908 indicate the logos of the Kansas City Chiefs andDenver Broncos, respectively.

As can also be seen in FIG. 9, button 902 is not of uniform shape inorder to facilitate the inclusion of an advertising button 910. Asshown, button 910 includes a “Nike Swoosh” advertising element that maybe used to advertise various sporting goods available from Nike, Inc.Because Nike provides sporting goods, including advertising button 910with an advertising element near button 902, which shows information foran athletic event, may be an effective advertising mechanism.Advertising elements may be used in any type of button, informationtray, and/or any other portion of the electronic program guides.

Buttons 306 may also include promotional slogans to indicate significantevents. Slogans may include phrases such as “Final Episode,” “SeasonFinale,” or any other suitable phrase.

Turning to FIG. 10, two promotion 1002 and 1004 buttons that may also beused in the electronic program guides of the present invention areshown. As illustrated, buttons 1002 and 1004 are not displayed with acorresponding channel indicator 308 like buttons 306. Because buttons1002 and 1004 are not displayed with a channel indicator 308, thesebuttons may be used to promote or advertise any event, goods, service,etc. irrespective of whether the event, goods, or service is a relatedto a television program. Nevertheless, as shown, button 1002 ispromoting a television program “Ally McBeal.” Within button 1002 are aslogan “Don't miss Ally tonight!”, a logo “Ally McBeal”, an affiliationindicator “FOX”, a celebrity image of Calista Flockhart, and textprogram information “7:00 on FOX”. Promotion button 1004, asillustrated, is associated with button 1002, even though button 1004 maybe completely independent of button 1002. Button 1004 comprises aaffiliation indicator for “TV Guide Online”, an text information “Findout more about Calista at TV Guide online”, and a Uniform ResourceLocator (URL) for “www.tvguide.com”. By selecting the URL in button 1004when the electronic program guide is implemented as an interactivetelevision program guide or an online television program guide, theelectronic program guide may present a web browser containing thecorresponding web page.

Two other forms of promotion buttons are illustrated in FIGS. 11 and 12.As shown in FIG. 11, a promotion button 1102 may be used to promote anevent such as the “Daytona 500”. In conjunction with this promotion,button 1102 may also include a slogan “Winston Cup Series premier!”, anaffiliation indicator “TV Guide Channel”, and text information “ThisSunday!”. An advertising button 1104 may also be used in conjuntion withpromotion button 1102. As shown, button 1104 shows the logo for “NASCAR”to advertise “NASCAR” auto racing. By placing advertising button 1104near promotion button 1102, viewers are aware of the association oftheir content.

As shown in FIG. 12, a promotion button 1202 may be used to promote anevent such as the “Holyfield VS Lennox” boxing match as indicated by thetext information “Holyfield VS Lennox”. Also included in button 1202 isa celebrity image of the two fighters, and more text informationindicating that the fight will be aired on “Sat, March 13” at “7:00 PM”and will be “Live on Pay-Per-View”.

The concepts shown and discussed in conjunction with the figures may beused in passive, interactive, and online guides. The arrangements ofscreen elements shown are merely illustrative. For example, see U.S.patent application Ser. No. 09/357,941, filed Jul. 16, 1999 and U.S.patent application Ser. No. 09/354,602, filed Jul. 16, 1999, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entirety, for examplesof arrangements of interactive program guides, and U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 08/938,028, filed Sep. 18, 1997, which is herebyincorporated by reference herein in its entirety, for examples ofarrangements of elements in an online program guide. The screens used inaccordance with the present invention may or may not be partitioned intovarious sections containing, for example, program listings, videowindows, advertisements, logos and screen titles, etc. Program listingsmay be in the form of a grid, a list sorted by time, channel, category,alphabetically, or in any other format.

In the interactive embodiments, the guide may allow the user tohighlight any individual item and select it using a “Select”, “Enter”,“Ok”, or similar key. In the online embodiments, the guide may allow theuser to select any individual time by clicking on it using a mouse.Selectable items may include any button, logo, indicator, text, icon,etc.

Selecting an item may cause the guide to perform an action (such astuning to a program) related to the item, display additional informationrelated to the item, display a menu of options related to the item(e.g., watch, remind, lock, favorite, order, other air times, etc.), orother function.

The foregoing is merely illustrative of the principles of this inventionand various modifications can be made by those skilled in the artwithout departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for presenting program information,comprising: receiving program data; and generating, for display, thereceived program data in a format including buttons, wherein the buttonsrepresent program listings, and wherein at least one button isselectable and comprises a plurality of graphical logos, a first of theplurality of graphical logos representative of an associated program,and a second of the plurality of graphical logos representative of aprovider of the associated program.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein atleast one button is interactive.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein atleast one button comprises a graphically displayed television programlisting.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the title, font, or backdropof the graphically displayed television program listing is substantiallysimilar to a trademark representative of the program listing.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, wherein at least one of the buttons comprises anicon, a graphics logo, a graphic trademark, or a celebrity image.
 6. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising appropriately sizing the heightand width of the buttons to accommodate the contents displayed therein.7. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one button displays thegraphical logo without user input.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein theplurality of logos are interspersed with text.
 9. The method of claim 1,wherein: the at least one button further comprises an advertisement; andthe first of the plurality of graphical logos, the second of theplurality of graphical logos, and the advertisement are displayed withinthe button at the same time.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein at leastone of the first of the plurality of logos and the second of theplurality of logos is available to be selected independently ofselecting the button.
 11. A system for presenting program information,the system comprising processing circuitry that: receives program data;and generates, for display, the received program data in a formatincluding buttons, wherein the buttons represent program listings, andwherein at least one button is selectable and comprises a plurality ofgraphical logos, a first of the plurality of graphical logosrepresentative of an associated program, and a second of the pluralityof graphical logos representative of a provider of the associatedprogram.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein at least one button isinteractive.
 13. The system of claim 11, wherein at least one buttoncomprises a graphically displayed television program listing.
 14. Thesystem of claim 13, wherein the title, font, or backdrop of thegraphically displayed television program listing is substantiallysimilar to a trademark representative of the program listing.
 15. Thesystem of claim 11, wherein at least one of the buttons comprises anicon, a graphics logo, a graphic trademark, or a celebrity image. 16.The system of claim 11, wherein the processing circuitry appropriatelysizes the height and width of the buttons to accommodate the contentsdisplayed therein.
 17. The system of claim 11, wherein the at least onebutton displays the graphical logo without user input.
 18. The apparatusof claim 11, wherein the plurality of logos are interspersed with text.19. A non-transitory machine readable medium encoded withmachine-readable instructions for presenting program information, themachine-readable instructions comprising: retrieving program data; andgenerating, for display, the retrieved program data in a formatincluding buttons, wherein the buttons represent program listings, andwherein at least one button is selectable and comprises a plurality ofgraphical logos, a first of the plurality of graphical logosrepresentative of an associated program, and a second of the pluralityof graphical logos representative of a provider of the associatedprogram.
 20. The non-transitory machine readable medium encoded withmachine-readable instructions of claim 19, wherein at least one buttonis interactive.
 21. The non-transitory machine readable medium encodedwith machine-readable instructions of claim 19, wherein at least onebutton comprises a graphically displayed television program listing. 22.The non-transitory machine readable medium encoded with machine-readableinstructions of claim 21, wherein the title, font, or backdrop of thegraphically displayed television program listing is substantiallysimilar to a trademark representative of the program listing.
 23. Thenon-transitory machine readable medium encoded with machine-readableinstructions of claim 19, wherein at least one of the buttons comprisesan icon, a graphics logo, a graphic trademark, or a celebrity image. 24.The non-transitory machine readable medium encoded with machine-readableinstructions of claim 19, further comprising appropriately sizing theheight and width of the buttons to accommodate the contents displayedtherein.
 25. The non-transitory machine readable medium encoded withmachine-readable instructions of claim 19, wherein the at least onebutton displays the graphical logo without user input.
 26. Thenon-transitory machine readable medium encoded with machine-readableinstructions of claim 19, wherein the plurality of logos areinterspersed with text.